Kissing in Kansas

by Kirsten Osbourne

  He looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "Are you going to kiss me whenever you feel like it?"

  Samara shrugged. "Why not? We're married, and I like kissing you. Have you had breakfast yet?"

  "No, I waited for you. Do you want to go out for breakfast?" Henry hated spending money eating out all the time, but until they went to get the twins that afternoon, he wanted to be alone with her for as little time as possible.

  "Nah. I like to cook. Omelet? Scrambled eggs? French toast?"

  "I like French toast a lot."

  "Oh good. That's one of my favorites. French toast, bacon, and coffee. You are a coffee drinker, aren't you?"

  "Sometimes."

  "Sometimes? Oh that's harsh. Okay, starting coffee and then bacon." She found the coffee pot and got some going immediately. What kind of man didn't drink coffee first thing in the morning? He was a heretic! He should have had it waiting for her. She thought Lachele had screened him. No sex was one thing, but no coffee? He probably didn't even like chocolate!

  He left the room while she fixed breakfast. He'd been running around in his pajamas, so she was certain he wanted to go change while she was otherwise occupied.

  By the time he returned, she had the French toast and bacon on the table and was finishing her second cup of coffee. She moved to the table to sit with him, and he took her hand, surprising her. She understood what he was about when he immediately bowed his head to pray.

  "Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this food you've provided us with. Thank you for sending Samara to the girls and me. We need her. Please help both Samara and I to do all we can to glorify you with our marriage and help us not to get upset with each other about small things. Help us to work through the big things that must be worked through. We pray all this in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen."

  "Amen," Samara echoed. Did he think he was glorifying God by not having sex with her? The man was odd. "So what are your plans for the day?" She doctored her French toast with butter and syrup.

  "Well, I was planning on going to church this morning, but the pastor made it clear that I shouldn't do that, so I'll probably go to the car dealership my friend owns. I was just talking to him, and he has a couple of vehicles he thinks will fit. Do you want to come with me?" As soon as he asked, he wanted to bite his tongue. He didn't need a woman there with him when he bought a car. It would be so much simpler if he could just go on his own.

  Samara nodded. "I wouldn't mind being able to test drive it before we buy since I'll be the primary driver."

  "That makes sense. Should we get the girls first?"

  "I can't imagine what having two small children at a car dealership would be like. I've heard it takes hours and hours to make a deal on a car."

  "I didn't think about that. You're right. We should probably go right after breakfast. Dealership is technically closed 'til noon, but my friend said he'd open early. Maybe we can have it done before we need to pick up the girls this afternoon."

  Five hours later, she was following him to a restaurant in her new minivan. Samara hadn't driven much, so it was strange to be behind the wheel again. The seat was higher than she was used to as well. There weren't a lot of minivans in Manhattan unless they were taxis.

  They went inside the chain restaurant and the hostess took them to a booth. "How did it handle on the way here?" Henry asked.

  Samara shrugged. "I'm not sure how it was supposed to handle, but it seemed fine. I like it."

  "Good! I'll put the girls' car seats in it as soon as we get home. We'll use the van as a family car, and then I can stop taking them places in my work truck. I probably should have gotten a more child friendly vehicle as soon as they came to live with me, but it seemed a waste when I was the only driver."

  She nodded at him, studying the menu. "I think I just want a salad," she finally announced.

  "Sounds good. I'm getting steak."

  They talked while they ate. She talked about what it was like growing up with her two siblings in upstate New York, and he talked about growing up in Teaville.

  When they'd finished eating, he glanced at the time on his phone, and tried to keep his relief visible. As soon as they got back to Teaville, they'd need to pick up the girls. He was ready to have them as a buffer between him and his sweet wife. After the fight they'd had in the bride's room, he'd expected them to be constantly butting heads, but that was far from the case. He genuinely liked her, more than he cared to admit.

  They parked both vehicles in the driveway before walking next door to pick up Abby and Avy. Henry knocked on the door and waited. The girls came running to him, squealing with excitement. "Uncle Henry!"

  Henry took each of the girls in one arm and lifted them up, hugging them close. "I missed you two like crazy!"

  "We missed you too!"

  Grandma Betty smiled at them. "They were angels as always."

  Samara looked at the girls and frowned. "Are they always dressed identically?"

  Abby smiled at Samara. "We like to look just alike, Aunt Sami. It's fun!"

  Samara sighed. She was certain it was fun for them, but how was she ever going to learn to tell them apart?

  "We may have to get you matching outfits that have different colored collars or something. I'll think on that."

  Henry looked at Samara with a grin. He'd been able to tell the twins apart since they were tiny, but he understood immediately what was going on in her head. They did need to make it easy for her until she learned to tell them apart. "Maybe we should take a quick trip into Wal-Mart to do that."

  Samara shook her head. "Nah. I'll order from Amazon. I have Prime, so we'll have everything here in two days. I'll figure something out in the meantime." She could buy several outfits and have Abby always in blue and Avy always in violet. That way she could remember what color they wore by the second letter in their names.

  "Thanks a lot for watching them extra hours for me this weekend, Betty," Henry said. "You and Samara need to talk about what hours you'll have them during the week now. She'll be working from home, so I'm sure it won't be as many as it has been."

  And there it is. That's why I'm here. "My work will still need to be done on East coast time. I'll start work around eight in the morning and be done by four. I won't need a lunch break. I can walk them over at 7:45 every morning, and pick them up at 4:15. That'll give me time before and after to get everything in order." She'd feel like she was working less hours this way, but really it would be the same. There just wouldn't be an hour commute on the subway or a break for lunch.

  "That sounds good. If you ever need to work late, just let me know. It would be my pleasure to keep the girls any time."

  "Thank you!" Samara told her. "I guess I'll see you in the morning with the girls."

  "I'll look forward to it."

  They left, going back to the house. "What do you girls think we should have for supper?" she asked.

  "For supper?" one of them asked. "I want pizza."

  Henry laughed. "You always want pizza, Avy."

  "I want tacos!" Abby said.

  "And you always want tacos! Maybe Aunt Sami can make something new that we'll all like."

  Samara smiled. "Maybe I can!"

  As soon as they got home, Samara looked at Henry, taking one of the girls from him. "This one is Avy, right?"

  He nodded. "Yeah, I've still got Abby."

  Samara carried Avy up the stairs and into her bedroom. "I think we should put some nail polish on you. Would you like that?" She rarely painted her nails, but a friend had given her a bunch of polish for her last birthday, so she had a lot of colors to choose from.

  Avy nodded. "My mommy used to polish my nails."

  "Well, we can polish them any time you'd like. How about purple?"

  "Purple is a nice color."

  "I think so too." Samara went to her suitcase and dug through her nail polish, finding a purple quickly. She couldn't continually mess up on which girl was which. She was afraid she'd lose their re
spect quickly if that happened.

  Ten minutes later, Avy ran down the stairs, showing off her pretty purple nail polish.

  Samara wasn't surprised when Abby came into the room, holding out her hands. She hurried into the bathroom and came back with blue polish. "This will match your eyes!"

  Abby looked at the polish, seeming to consider it for a moment. "I like it!"

  Once she'd polished Abby's fingers, she was sure she could tell them apart for a while. Thank God.

  *****

  They had a movie night that evening, watching Samara's favorite children's movie, Beauty and the Beast. "I'm going to marry Beast someday," she told the girls in a whisper.

  "But you're married to Uncle Henry!" Avy protested.

  "Oh yeah. I forgot!" Samara said with a wink toward Henry.

  "I can be a beast if you need me to, Samara. I can keep you from reading and yell at you a lot."

  "Try it!"

  The girls giggled. "Uncle Henry never yells," Abby announced. "He's too nice."

  "Oh really? That's just 'cuz I haven't been around yet. I bet I can make him yell a lot."

  "You can? How? Are you going to try to make him mad?" Avy asked.

  Samara shook her head. "No, I have a feeling that it's just something I'm going to be really good at."

  "Why?" Abby asked.

  Samara thought really hard about the question. "Because we're married, and we don't know each other very well yet. As we get to know each other, we'll have some troubles."

  Avy shook her head. "Not with Uncle Henry. He doesn't yell."

  Samara leaned down and kissed the little girl on the forehead. "We'll see."

  "We will?" Abby asked

  "Or we'll all hear at least." Samara grinned. The movie had just finished, and she looked at the clock. "It's time for baths."

  "Baths?" Abby asked. "Uncle Henry makes us take baths on Tuesdays and Saturdays. What day is it?"

  Samara sighed. "Well, it's not Tuesday or Saturday, but I think little girls should take baths every day."

  "Every day?" Avy asked. "Our skin will dry up and fall off. That's why we only take them two days. Mama made us take them every day too, but Uncle Henry said he got us just in time to save our skin!"

  Samara looked at Henry. "Really?" Looking back at the sweet girls, she said, "Bathing every day does not make your skin fall off. I'll only wash your hair on Saturdays and Tuesdays, but you need to bathe every day. I think your uncle just didn't want to have to give you baths every day."

  Abby looked at Henry, her eyes wide. "Did you lie to us, Uncle Henry?"

  Henry looked embarrassed. "Well, now I wouldn't call it a lie. It was just—a different version of truth."

  Avy shook her head at Henry. "You did lie to us. How can we ever trust you again? I'm so disappointed." Avy got down off the couch and took Samara's hand. "Can we take a bath together in Uncle Henry's big bathtub please?"

  Samara nodded. "Of course, you can. Do you want bubble bath?"

  Abby squealed excitedly. "Bubbles!" She ran for the stairs, Avy at her heels.

  As soon as the girls were out of earshot, Samara rolled her eyes at Henry. "Their skin would fall off if they bathed every day? Really?"

  "I'd have told them I lied before they were old enough to start stinking!"

  "That doesn't make it any better. Unbelievable." She hurried up the stairs to find the girls sitting on the floor in her bathroom totally naked. She started the water. "Did you get a bath last night?"

  The twins nodded in unison. "Yes, ma'am. Anytime we have to stay the night, Grandma Betty gives us a bath," Avy answered.

  "Did she start watching you when you moved in with your uncle? Or did you know her before?" Samara added bubble bath to the tub while the water ran.

  Abby shrugged. "We've always known her. Since we were teeny tiny babies. She knew our mommy."

  "Okay, I'm glad you've always known her. She seems to really love you girls."

  Avy nodded. "Of course, she does. We're lovable."

  Samara laughed. "You sure are!" She picked up Avy and put her in the tub and then Abby. "Do you have boats?" she asked, looking around the bathroom for toys.

  They shook their heads. "No boats at all. We used to, but Uncle Henry threw them all in the garbage," Avy said.

  "He did?" Samara frowned. "Rubber duckies?"

  "We don't have any bath toys at all. It's so hard to have fun in the tub without them. We used to have a little orange fish that squirted water out its mouth. I liked to squirt it at Avy."

  "That does sound like a lot of fun!" Samara told them. Why was Henry against bath toys? The girls would have more fun in the tub with toys. She gave them each a washcloth. "Scrub your sister's back for me."

  She moved over and put the seat down on the potty, picking up her Kindle from where she'd set it on the counter. The girls would be fine while she read.

  She made it through exactly one chapter before the cries of, "Aunt Sami!" started. When she looked up, she saw that the girls had managed to empty the bathtub of water, but not down the drain. Instead, the water and bubbles were all over the floor.

  "Wait in the tub while I clean up the mess," she said calmly. She got out a towel and threw it on the floor, skating around on the mess, soaking it up as best she could.

  "Let us help!" Avy said, standing in the tub watching.

  "No, you sit down. Let me get this cleaned up, and then I'll get you both out. I don't want you falling on the slippery floor." Samara grabbed another towel, hanging the dripping one off the side of the tub. Four towels later, the floor was dry enough to get the twins out. She dried them quickly and took them through the halls naked to put their clothes on.

  She'd need to remember to take their clothes with her into the bathroom. It wasn't brain surgery. She'd just never had two children to raise before.

  Once the twins were dried and in their pajamas, she tucked them in. "Wait," Abby said. "You told us you'd read stories."

  Samara stopped at the doorway. "You like stories?"

  They both nodded.

  "Okay, then let's all meet on Abby's bed and we'll read." When Abby moved to the bed Avy was in, Samara got confused. She looked back and forth between them. "Did I get your names confused?" she asked.

  "No," Avy responded.

  "Well, then why did Abby get in your bed?"

  Abby grinned. "You put us in the wrong beds."

  Samara sighed. "Of course, I did. Let me find a good book." She walked to their bookshelf and picked out two books, both by Dr. Seuss. She was a huge Dr. Seuss fan. She moved to sit between the girls and opened up Green Eggs and Ham.

  The girls were great listeners, taking turns flipping to the next page for her. They loved Green Eggs and Ham and giggled hysterically through Hop on Pop.

  When she closed Hop on Pop she kissed each girl on the forehead. "Get back in your beds, and under your covers, and I'll tuck you in again."

  "Can we have more stories tomorrow?" Avy asked after they'd complied, and Samara was tucking her in to sleep.

  "Absolutely. Tomorrow night, I'll let each of you pick out one story."

  Abby smiled, hugging Samara when it was her turn to be tucked. "I love reading stories. You're going to be the best aunt ever."

  Samara laughed. "I'll certainly try to be." She left the room, shutting off the light, and immediately went to her office.

  She powered up her computer and ordered each of the girls ten shirts that were identical with small differences. There. She wouldn't have a hard time telling them apart now. While she was there, she also ordered several bath toys for them. She was a strong believer in good bath toys. Yes, that was the answer.

  Since wearing her sexy nightgown hadn't really worked on Henry the night before, she went to bed in her usual panties and a tee-shirt.

  When she walked into the room where Henry was already in bed, he closed his eyes. "Are you trying to kill me?"

  "Of course not. I just want you to think of me as attractive." S
he moved to the center of the bed, pressing as close to him as possible. "You do think I'm attractive, don't you, Henry?"

  "I think you're trying to kill me," he said, rolling to his side so his back was to her.

  Samara didn't take a moment to think, instead, she pressed up against his back, her breasts against him and her knees tucked behind his. She rested her cheek on his back with a smile. "I think you're pretty sexy, Henry Crider."

  He groaned. "Stop saying things like that to me."

  "Oh, I couldn't. I would never lie to you. I won't even tell you your skin will fall off if you bathe too much."

  "Am I ever going to live that down?"

  "Never."

  Chapter Five

  Henry woke Samara at half past five the following morning. "I need to leave for work by 6:15, and we all like to eat breakfast together."

  Samara groaned, but rolled out of bed. Henry was already dressed for the day. "Give me five minutes."

  When she got downstairs five minutes later, the girls were sitting at the table wearing their pajamas, and Henry was giving them each a glass of milk. "So what should I make for breakfast?" she asked.

  "Pancakes!" Avy said.

  "Yeah, pancakes!" Abby responded.

  "With bacon," Henry told her with a grin.

  "I'm starting to feel like a short order cook around here," she grumbled under her breath as she got down a mixing bowl and turned on a burner on the electric stove so the griddle could heat while she was mixing up the pancakes.

  Henry walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her. "Thank you for cooking breakfast for us," he whispered against her ear.

  Samara left the whisk in the bowl, and turned around, her mouth going to his. She knew the twins were watching, so she didn't let her hands roam, but she gave him a kiss he wouldn't forget while he was working that day.

  When he lifted his head, she could see that his eyes seemed a bit glazed. "Go sit down so I can cook," she said, reaching for the coffee pot. He'd had the brains to start the coffee before waking her, and she drank a mug-full while she stood guard over the pancakes.

  Once she was seated, they all held hands, and Henry prayed for them again.